Guest Post | Bay St Louis Can’t Take Much More of the Mayor’s “Proven Leadership”

I feel compelled to comment on Mayor Fillingame’s latest “political theme” ad recently published in the Seacoast Echo: “PROVEN LEADERSHIP!”

Actually, Mr. Fillingame has certainly proven his “ability to lead”. The results are in……….

It has been “proven” that with no notice to city employees, he failed to pay their insurance premiums, leaving them in the lurch regarding medical expenses.

It has been “proven” that he misappropriated the citizens’ utility payments (Seacoast Echo, Oct. 12, 2013) and then stuck those same citizens with an illegal loan to cover up his actions. (Nov. 25, 2013, Council minutes and 2014 Audit)

It has been “proven” that in 2011, he illegally “unrestricted” the Department of Justice Police Fund, forcing the DOJ to demand that these funds must be repaid. This forced the DOJ to make the determination that in the future, those funds are to be spent exclusively by the Police Chief, after the approval of the DOJ and the City Council only. (2014 Audit and Department of Justice Report)

It has been “proven” that he continues to insist on a Building Department with uncertified management, who apply the building code selectively to citizens. (City Council minutes, chock full of citizen complaints)

It has been “proven” that during his term of office, the city has been faced with over 20 lawsuits. (Documents from City Clerk, prepared by City Attorney)

It has been “proven”` that his refusal to abide by state and federal laws, and his repeated denial of audit results, forced the city to pay thousands of unnecessary dollars for additional audits and attorney fees. (City claim dockets and Council minutes)

It has been “proven” that he allowed the Police Station to get in such bad condition that the new Police Chief had to make a request to the Council to move his officers and employees out of the building due to mold infestation and other problems. (City Council minutes)

It has been “proven” from the Mayor’s own spread sheet, given to the City Council in 2016: From 2009, when Mayor Fillingame took office through April of 2017, he has cut over 2,000 working hours from personnel in our Police and Fire Departments. Hours “cut” from those Departments of Bay St. Louis has surely compromised safety for the citizens of Bay St. Louis.

More recently the City Council, working with both Chiefs, has led the way to increase personnel in both the Police and Fire departments. This will help insure our safety, and also assure that the Fire Station on Hwy. 603 will be manned full time!

It has been “proven” that when Mayor Fillingame took office, the prior administration left the city with $3.8 million dollars in cash. At the beginning of the Mayor’s second term, he stated that the city was in the best financial condition it had ever been! Yet, four months after the inauguration of his 2nd term, the new Council had to borrow $500,000 to make payments to the Solid Waste and Wastewater Authority in order to pay back his misspent money. Records prove that during most of Mayor Fillingame’s “leadership”, the city has been forced, time after time and year after year to have to continually borrow money!! Yet 4 years ago, the Mayor stated that “We’re in the best financial condition we’ve ever been in”! Not so! The real truth is a matter of record!

Fellow citizens and taxpayers, please don’t lose sight of the fact that we are all picking up the tab for the results of this “proven” leadership! $$$$$$ Leadership, in this case doesn’t mean taking all the credit for the good things that happen, and not holding yourself responsible for the bad! Running a city takes teamwork, and true “leadership”.

As one who has read and studied the aforementioned documents, and attended meetings for the past 11 years, in my opinion it has definitely been “proven” that our city cannot endure, nor afford another 4 years of Fillingame’s style of “leadership”.

40 thoughts on “Guest Post | Bay St Louis Can’t Take Much More of the Mayor’s “Proven Leadership””

Sam Moore’s letter here is what I call ” knocking it out of the ballpark!”
When you have cared enough to research your statements through documents before you
publish them, and sign your own name, says a lot about an individual.
Those who will surely criticize this post and attempt to disclaim it will be hard pressed because Sam did his homework.
Congrats to him for bringing out these facts!!

It is ashamed that he has been given an apparent immunity to these crimes against the tax payers. I say apparent, because it has just allowed him the time to continue his abuses on the citizens but he will eventually be held accountable.

Just today, he has created a 2nd Saturday debacle by again closing down the Harbor and creating a known problem for public parking. This problem bleeds over into the private sector which he cares little about unless it is his selective people.

Business success has not been his forte and leadership not one of his skills.

He is much better at giving away money that is not his own and making rules as he goes. He, his daughter and cronies have had a good ride on the full faith and credit of the loyal taxpayer but everyone gets their day of reckoning.

Just went and talked with the assistant harbor master. He said it will be blocked to the public on 2nd Saturday for the Rest of the year. WOW! He even said that the Mayor and Trent Favre are in favor of it and do not want it to be public parking ever! I believe Les said this but not Favre. I will verify this with Trent.

He said the lease allows him to enforce this but it is in direct conflict with the provision of the Grants that it will increase needed public parking.

I do not believe for one second that Trent said anything than other they can if they choose to legally. I do not believe he would make any suggestion to do it. This is not Raff. He is a legit supporter of our city and needs. Sure they can probably do it occasionally, legally, but planning to interfere with public use would fit Les’s agenda perfectly if the right people are interfered with.

Kathleen,
That is info from the assistant Harbor Master. I also said I do not believe Trent suggested it only maybe said he can do it. Les will stretch everything till it breaks on anybody. He has never shied away from blaming others no matter who. He even had his daughter in a political agenda it was embarrassing for them. The only thing that she said was true was that they were on the same road at the same time. That was Les’s 3rd attempt to get a political enemy put in his jail. All verified by video.
Enough said . Tuesday will decide.

If people would pay attention there is a cruizin on Second Saturday held by the MISFIT CRUIZERS and they all support the local buisness’s downtown. I have attended the event and I also see where these people raise money to support local charities.

Concerned,
Do they pay a lease fee, get event insurance and hire police security like everyone else who has benevolent intentions? That is the big question. I believe the fee has been waived by the mayor, then it is not so benevolent but a free outing for the car owners on the backs of the tax payer.

I just noticed what appears to me to be an ABSOLUTELY AMAZING STATISTIC! Even better, it’s more BSL!

In yesterday’s report on Mayor LesLie’s “pocket veto” of the council’s utility billing policy change there is a little detail that may pass by the average person. It isn’t the part where duh mayo is apparently frustrating the council policy to address the issue of letting past dues get bigger and bigger and potentially escape payment either.

Follow along below, maybe the blog operator can add his take on whether or not this has a funny smell like some of the other BSL funny smells.

“You don’t pay your cable T.V., you don’t pay your satellite dish, you don’t pay your power bill, they get turned off,” Seal said. “The city of Bay St. Louis seems to have a problem with doing that. We pay our bills, you pay your bills, everyone needs to pay their bills.”
During public forum, Lana Noonan with the Hancock County Alliance for Good Government asked the council for the number of delinquent accounts.
Seal said he hadn’t received a report in the past couple of months.

Whoops not that! But that part about slow and no pays getting cut off is true most places except “Places Apart” imo.

This is what caused me to fall out the hammock earlier this AM (Mimosa everywhere!):

Bay St. Louis City Clerk Sissy Gonzales – after running an analysis of past-due accounts – said Friday the collection rate on accounts that are 60 days past due is 98.4 percent. The collection rate on accounts 90 days past due is 98.5 percent, she said.

That’s an amazing collection rate on past due accounts. Could it be that most BSL overdue accounts aren’t really unable to pay, but are using BSL utilities as a payday loan? Still collecting 90 days past at 98.5%?!

If this is really true (98.5% collection on 90 days past accounts?!- Is the collection rate even higher on 180 days past due?!) then BSL should give some thought to selling bonds and having some bake sales at the Harbor and investing the proceeds in buying aged trade receivables! Or, the lower risk proposition would be increasing the penalties on past due accounts so that BSL is not the lender at least cost.

I just noticed what appears to me to be an ABSOLUTELY AMAZING STATISTIC! Even better, it’s more BSL!

In yesterday’s report on Mayor LesLie’s “pocket veto” of the council’s utility billing policy change there is a little detail that may pass by the average person. It isn’t the part where duh mayo is apparently frustrating the council policy to address the issue of letting past dues get bigger and bigger and potentially escape payment either.

Follow along below, maybe the blog operator can add his take on whether or not this has a funny smell like some of the other BSL funny smells.

“You don’t pay your cable T.V., you don’t pay your satellite dish, you don’t pay your power bill, they get turned off,” Seal said. “The city of Bay St. Louis seems to have a problem with doing that. We pay our bills, you pay your bills, everyone needs to pay their bills.”

During public forum, Lana Noonan with the Hancock County Alliance for Good Government asked the council for the number of delinquent accounts.
Seal said he hadn’t received a report in the past couple of months.

Whoops not that! But that part about slow and no pays getting cut off is true most places except “Places Apart” imo.

This below is what caused me to fall out the hammock earlier this AM (Mimosa everywhere!):

Bay St. Louis City Clerk Sissy Gonzales – after running an analysis of past-due accounts – said Friday the collection rate on accounts that are 60 days past due is 98.4 percent. The collection rate on accounts 90 days past due is 98.5 percent, she said.

That’s an amazing collection rate on past due accounts. Could it be that most BSL overdue accounts aren’t really unable to pay, but are using BSL utilities as a payday loan? Still collecting 90 days past at 98.5%?!

If this is really true (98.5% collection on 90 days past accounts?!- Is the collection rate even higher on 180 days past due?!) then BSL should give some thought to selling bonds and having some bake sales at the Harbor and investing the proceeds in buying aged trade receivables! Or, the lower risk proposition for the BSL taxpayers would be increasing the penalties on past due accounts so that BSL is not the lender at least cost.

rfp,
The beginning of your last paragraph says it all, “If this is really true.” This is the same City Clerk that wanted to put the Workman’s Comp Fund into the Reserve Fund. Thank goodness Handshoe happened to be at that meeting. We had to signal to Council that they were about to co-mingle funds. But, it was in the middle of the DOJ payback battle, and I am guessing Les was trying to build up the Reserve in the event the payback had to be done.
Boudin spoke up and convinced Council to put Workman’s Comp into an interest bearing account.
So, all I am saying is “if this is really true.???!!!”

I’ve been CPAing for 30 years and have never heard of a financial professional describe their receivables in such terms. So Bay St Louis’ mythical collection rate is 98.5%. Is that “collection rate” based on the numbers of accounts, account balance dues or just a meaningless statistic? My vote is for meaningless statistic. But hey, since this is slabbed and people come here to learn things:

I seriously doubt the City’s collection percentage is a where near 98%, not when it is calculated correctly in any event.

And your point RPF on the 90 day “collection percentage” being greater than the 60 day does indeed suggest residents are using their water bills as a source of cash flow. What the heck, they don’t have to worry about this administration cutting them off.

I wondered if some non standard counting method was used to come up with these stats?

Seems like if they report 98.4% percent of the 60 days past due accounts there would be next to no accounts left to be the 90 days past due bucket. Not to mention, it seems rather unlikely that the collection rates would differ by only .1% between 60 days past due accounts and 90 days past due accounts, if they were actually classified correctly. Do they have a crew of Bubbas busting heads to collect?

I have been told that if you make shit up as you go then you can come up with the most amazing statistics. (Enron, WorldCom ZZZZ Best etc.)

I suspect they may be talking about percentages that are ultimately collected out of each column, which is what makes it useless as a stat.

As a general rule, the longer a receivable is outstanding, the less likely it is to ever be collected. Expressed in cash dollar terms, three restaurants skating on their water bills would equal a multiple number of individual bills.

The accepted methods for measuring the turn are the DSO and the NCP listed in the linked article, both of which incorporate dollars. What the article does not mention are the residents that have gotten a free ride for the past 8 years or so with no cut-off. It is why the Mayor does not like the new ordinance.

Yesterday’s BSL mayoral primary just increased the odds that the council (and the next BSL mayor) will be getting timely financial and operating reports with numbers that are generated using standard methods.

Bonus! If the numbers are generated using the standard methods (GAAP etc) then they can be compared with other municipalities to see how the City of BSL is performing for the BSL taxpayer in terms of efficiency and overall spending levels. Things like how much money is the city owed, and who owes the city money. As the money owed BSL shows on the BSL books as an asset- is it actually a BSL asset? Or is it the money owed an uncollectible loss with the powers that be not recognizing that that money will never be collected?

It’s also probably time to examine how the “bad loans” (that’s what an uncollectible utility bill really is) were made. Sometimes that is discovered to be a “friends and family plan” benefit.

I think what gets most people irritated is the flat rate, one price water bill. Mine is the same every month and there’s only 2 people in the house with very little water usage. Where’s a meter reading and pay by usage scale. There isn’t. It’s ridiculous!

The piers are dangerously high for boarding. The boat ramp parking is far removed from the ramp and the bait and other amenities are far removed from those things. Great visual appeal but dysfunctional for purpose. Occupancy shows these statements to be true.

Anglers and avid boat owners and do not use this harbor. Most harbors are hindered in design by space but in this case there was plenty just have a poor design for a yacht and fishing boat basin.

Thank You Sam for such accurate information. Proven Leadership in the garbage can.
Please remind all of your friends and family to go and vote Tuesday. This mess has to stop. And now the Harbor? Grants paid for public parking. The city has no mandatory parking space requirements to each business when they open in BSL, so where will the people park? We have another new restaurant with facilities to accommodate large parties, where are all these cars going? The city is a MESS….

I’m pretty sure your goal is to sway undecided voters. I’m pretty sure that if there were any undecideds, the only convincing point you people are making is that Bay Saint Louis, MS is slap ass full of assholes and criminals. Some of you do not live in or for the city. I sometimes wonder if your goal isn’t to destroy the reputation of BSL in an effort to resurrect the wastelands in which you do live.

Fact :
Add another $5,000,000 lawsuit that states the Mayor lied & gave false statements in an attempt to cover this up.
The mayor did not fire or terminate the officer after being recommended by the Internal Affairs Investigation.
On & On. Go to pacer.gov for full lawsuit. About 40 pages.

Fact:
This administration has already destroyed the reputation of our city.
It’s always the council or previous administrations fault.
Not one time has he accepted any responsibility for his administration.
It all falls under him. He is king.
It comes with the job. You don’t want the responsibilities, don’t run for the job!!!

Fact:
What is more disturbing is the fact that this administration & so many of our citizens believe that there is a conspiracy to take the city over.
Where are all of the great citizens that didn’t vote.
Please come & vote for a change.
Do your homework!!
Base your decisions on the facts.
Good job Mr. Moore.

I understand there is one Council candidate who is concerned that there are no Republican Councilman and that is the reason the Bay has not gotten any BP money?!
I didn’t know it was being awarded with regard to political party.
You would think the Mayor, who works full time representing the city and its needs, would have more time to make the contacts and secure those funds for the city, regardless of his party affiliation.
Maybe those who are doling out the BP money were watching what the Mayor did with the DOJ funds and decided to wait until the BP funds could be placed into safer, more reliable hands.

No mayor and/or Council are worst then that in NOLA…… removing history before our very eyes without a city wide vote and now talk about changing name of Jefferson Parish and all street names associated with Confederate names ………and since Trump identifies with Andrew Jackson is the French Quarter next in the sights of this racist mayor/council?

Half-Moon Landrieu will have no political place to lie his bald racist head and is probably headed to replace Morial as president of Urban league or will just retire on payback monies from Deep State racists/racist orgs…Move On… Black Lives Matter… George Soros…..

Locke,
Are any of the antebellum estates on River Road owned by the State or are they all still privately owned?
Just so y’all will know my heart’s in the right place, I gave my hoop skirts to Goodwill years ago!!

Great question… I really don’t know but some of the B&B ones I have stayed at were privately owned……..but even the privately owned ones are afraid and now suscepticle to picketing and economic boycotts by the PC racist Deep State

Know this …. there have been many non-racist blacks who have showed up at the Liberty, Jeff Davis, Beauregard and Robert E. Lee monuments carrying the Confederate Flag in support of history and heritage and despise the current radical ,Obama induced
racist groups like Move On and Black Lives Matter

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